Finally, after a month long saga, group games concluded with the ICC top 8 making it to the knock out stage. Pakistan finished top of Group A, trouncing Australia effortlessly. Ponting and his men look highly vulnerable, only a miracle can help them retain their trophy. On the other hand toppers, Pakistan pleasantly surprised us with their fielding efforts, I remember they almost messed up a game due to poor fielding. Meantime, Umar Gul is reversing and swinging the ball late, I have never seen any bowler move the white ball in that fashion, his form will be crucial as Pakistan takes on an unpredictable Indies team.

Other qualifiers from Group A are Sri lanka and New Zealand. Both teams have their strengths and disturbing weaknesses. Sri Lanka is over reliant on Sangakara, rest of the batting line up has been scratchy, bowling too has been on-off. New Zealand as always are wild and thrilling, never know which way they would go. New Zealand will take on South Africa, my prediction is either they will blast away the Africans or loose by a huge margin, no scope for a close game.

Group B has remained exciting till the very last league game. However, it was England and Bangladesh who provided the best moments in the last two weeks. Bangla tigers culled England in a dramatic fashion, few days later england who had to win to survive in the CWC, beat an indisciplined WI in a thriller. Meantime, SA destroyed Bangla dreams of making it to the Quarters. Barring a familiar collapse against England, SA has been top of its game throughout the tournament. Their win against India proves that they can handle pressure and pull off victories under tense situations.

India had a very ordinary time. Batting disasters and listless bowling has planted huge doubts in the mind of fans and experts on its chances to win this WC. We are no more the favorites in the tournament. Batting, which was supposedly our stronghold came apart during the powerplay each and every time we batted first. Bowling has been terrible, Harbhajan and Zaheer have hardly done anything noteworthy, If India has to do well at the Knock Stages, these two gentlemen have to come good, now is the time which matters the most. On the brighter side, three Indian Batsmen are going strong. Sachin thundered two centuries [ We didn’t win any of those games though ], Sehwag is at his belligerent best. Yuraj has risen like a Phoenix and reaffirmed the good old saying – Form is temporary, Class is permanent.

For the first time since the 1987 edition, every team from this stage seems to have an equal chance of winning the trophy. All the eight teams have their issues, no one is outstanding, no one looks threatening, no one carries the clout of a world champion. It’s all even. Whichever team plays three good games from here will clinch the cup. I am hoping the big guns will rise to the occasion.

chapell ko chappal maro.. 🙂 i guess the aussies knowthey are not going to win and resorting to tactics like this.. in btw pakistan played really gud against aussies.. hope we will see you in semis.. sufia 🙂 may the best team win.. in btw gud post don 😉

Group A: Before the tournament started, very few would have imagined Pakistan leading the group at the half way mark. Thanks to few outstanding performances by Afridi, they are at the top and undefeated. Australia is a close second, going on expected lines, they would be ruing the bad weather against Sri Lanka which forced them to share points. Sri Lanka on the other hand needs to lift its game, they were shocked by Pakistan. New Zealand is also going strong. Minnows- Kenya, Zimbabwe & Canada haven’t caused much of threat, barring the Pak-Canada game they were mercilessly beaten .

Group B: This is where all the action is taking place. A tied game, couple of upsets ( One was huge ) and few mind blowing centuries. Lot of excitement. Despite poor show by the bowlers, India is aptly topping the group [ The other teams have been highly inconsistent ]. Indian thumped Bangladesh, played out a high scoring tie against England [ that game gave me a mild heart attack 😛 ] and yesterday took out a remarkable bunch of Irishmen. Meantime, South Africa which was expected to top the table started very well but, crashed in yesterday’s game [ no surprise there, only SA can pull off such miracles 😀 ]. England on the other side is playing see-saw. Indies are rocking. Bangladesh are reduced to cats. Netherlands did their bit however, it’s Ireland which set the stage on fire, they produced a thriller against England slamming record runs batting second.

So, at the half way stage it looks like rivals India and Pakistan hold an edge with Australia a close second, trying desperately to hold on their ” World Champions” title. Next couple of weeks may change the table. We’re all set for many more surprises and loads of top class Cricket. I just saw a news piece, it said India has been the most misbehaving team, lot of on-off field altercations, not a happy sight. It’s surprising to see Aussies [ who are largely considered the masters of sledging ] not getting into any ugly scene. Cricket is labeled as ‘ Gentlemen’s game ‘ and I hope teams act more responsibly, especially the hosts.

Trust you enjoying the tournament as well, do write your feedback. In case you aren’t following the world cup, take some time out and cheer your teams, believe me it’s fun.

Just the other evening I had resolved not to talk or write about Cricket in this space, atleast till the World Cup concludes. However, after close to 24 hours, I cannot resist anymore. Cricket is my life 🙂 . There’s no way I can keep away from writing about it. So, here’s me, reflecting on yesterday’s India-England epic.

I quickly made this video. I sound so foolish, all I have managed to do is blabber stuff at random 😀 [ hate listening to myself, next time I should avoid playing it ]. So, watch it…oops you can’t because I refrained from showing up my “good looking” face this time around, didn’t want to scare you so, I let my voice do the job, which again happens to be atrociously quirky. Listen to this piece of hmmm…

and its not that its BLOCKED. its just we get terrible speeds here. if someone opens a video, the internet stops for everyone else…which is very often since we use youtube a lot for work. for work related purposes its ok…but for personal browsing, its not a good thing. my boss is thinking of getting a better connection by the end of this mth….so hopefully things will improve, shes got selfish motives, the WC will start in feb and ppl will be streaming matches off the internet. dumb logic, but itll solve our connection problem 🙂

yyyyaaaaaayyyyyyyy…World cup brings high speed internet to offices in pakistan..how about that for news headlines..sensational?

Happy for you and your colleagues..I never thought Karachi had high speed internet..my bad..guess I need to look up more info about your city. A good friend of mine worked in Lahore for about 8 months and he always complained about poor internet. Hope your government is listening.

the problem is the phone lines….used to have a DSL connection at home, it worked quite well until the phone line died, This was last march (2010), ive been trying to get the phone line fixed since then but no joy. the phone line still isnt fixed, and ive gotten sick of complaining, and i havent been able to use my DSL connection since then. switched to wireless and been problem free since then 🙂